Six Years Later, Star Wars Is Still Fixing The Rise of Skywalker’s Biggest Mistake

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker spends a lot of time making up for what it believes to be mistakes. Instead of just embracing Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘s story and building on it, the sequel pivots hard. Sure, Kylo Ren remains a bad guy at the beginning, hunting down a Sith wayfinder that he hopes will help him tighten his grip on the galaxy. However, it doesn’t take him long to abandon that mission, with The Rise of Skywalker pushing him aside to make room for another villain, one who has his fair share of experience snuffing out rebellions.

Somehow, a clone of Emperor Palpatine returns in the final installment of the Skywalker Saga. He builds the Final Order on Exegol, reveals to Kylo that he was the one pulling Supreme Leader Snoke’s strings, and lures Rey to him after she learns that she’s essentially his granddaughter. It’s all very confusing, to say the least, since Palpatine met his end in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader threw him down a reactor shaft to save his son and bring balance to the Force. Rather than just washing its hands of the situation, though, the powers that be at Lucasfilm have been trying hard to make it make sense.

Star Wars Is Trying to Drop the “Somehow” From Palpatine’s Return

The first oppurtunity that Star Wars had to clear the air, it took. In Star Wars: The Mandalorian, the titular bounty hunter finds himself caring for a being that the remnants of the Empire want to get its hands on very badly. After going on a few adventures with “the Child,” Din Djarin crosses paths with Moff Gideon, who eventually reveals that he’s working on a super-secret cloning program. He needs the Child’s blood to learn more about creating Force-sensitive beings out of thin air, which doesn’t sit right with Din. It takes a few seasons, but Gideon loses the war, seemingly dying on Mandalore at the end of Season 3. Unfortunately, he’s not the only Imperial left in the galaxy.

The trailer for the upcoming film The Mandalorian & Grogu shows the duo once again facing off against stormtroopers and other members of what’s left of the Empire. It’s unclear what they’re after at this point, but it’s fair to assume Grogu is part of their plans. Maybe they’re even working on Project Necromancer, Palpatine’s program that drives the plot of Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Omega, a Force-sensitive clone, finds herself in dire straits after the Empire gets hold of her, and it’s up to Clone Force 99 to save her. They get the job done, but they don’t shut down Project Necromancer for good. In fact, it might rear its ugly head again in the near future.

Read Next

Eight Years After The Last Jedi, Star Wars Finally Reveals How Luke Skywalker Found the First Jedi Temple

It’s Time for Star Wars to Give Up on Palpatine

Before Gideon and his men go up in flames, he has a meeting with the rest of the Shadow Council. They argue about what to do as the threat of the Mandalorian grows more intense, with the biggest point of contention being whether to wait for Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return. Brendol Hux, the one leading the cloning charge, doesn’t want to keep twiddling his thumbs and wants to get the Emperor back as soon as possible. Well, Hux may not get his way because Thrawn is back in the picture after the events of Star Wars: Ahsoka, and he probably wants to put his stamp on the whole thing before it gets the green light.

What Lucasfilm doesn’t seem to understand, though, is that moving on would be the best course of action. Thrawn has the potential to be a great villain in live-action, and he doesn’t need all that weight on his shoulders. Yes, he was at one point one of the Emperor’s closest advisors, but as it stands, he has a real shot at gaining control of the galaxy on his own. That sounds like a worthwhile story to tell, whether it’s in Ahsoka Season 2 or a crossover project that brings all of the main characters of the Disney+ shows together. As Kylo so eloquently puts it in The Last Jedi, “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.”

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!